


Birthday Dinner

by wisenedthefuckup



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Gen, In 600 Words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2017-07-22
Packaged: 2018-12-05 12:02:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11577687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wisenedthefuckup/pseuds/wisenedthefuckup
Summary: About 15 years into the apocalypse, Bill manages as good a birthday dinner as he can for his boyfriend.





	Birthday Dinner

The Collector's house- possibly Bill's favorite place in Lincoln. The old resident had been an enormous military buff. He and Bill disagreed about that, but Bill liked the guy for other reasons. Beyond the military paraphernalia, down in the cellar, was a  _staggering_ amount of food. Preserved foods, MREs and the like, filled the room wall to wall. One shelf was dedicated solely to loose objects.   
    Bill started there, grabbing packs of drinks and shaking them, feeling them over. A fair deal of the instant mixes somehow remained usable- some of these were produced what had to be nearly a century ago. Frank loved coffee, and Bill wanted to insure there was plenty for his boyfriend's birthday tonight.   
    Satisfied, Bill proceeded across the shelf. He tested candies, packs of cigarettes, food bars.   
    The town hadn't had power in ten years, but the Collector's home was in a cool part of town, shielded by one of the hills and in just the right spot so that the cellar didn't flood but the temperature stayed nice and cool year round. Only for that were any of these rations still good, and Bill thanked the Collector's preparedness every time he tucked in. If not for the Collector, Bill would have flirted with hunger a lot more than he had.  
    Time to find dinner. It was almost impossible to tell whether the rations were good or not without opening them- he'd opened horribly beaten up cans that were beautifully preserved inside, and beautifully conditioned portions that were completely foul within- so he had to grab an armful of them. There was no way he could make cake- he had water, oil, but the eggs and mix were out of the question- but he compromised by picking out the meals he knew Frank would like best. Even if some of them made him curl his lip in disgust.  
    "Th' things I do fer love," he grumbled, stacking a final MRE into his box.  
    Jerking his sleeve back so that he could see his watch, Bill cursed- Frank would be at the church soon. He had to get back there, fast.   
    Sprinting from the house, he only just remembered to lock the door. Snow crunched underfoot but he made it to the church in record time, calling a greeting to Frank, working on the barricade, as he passed. Taking the stairs two at a time, he mounted the hill so fast he came close to losing his balance.  
    Barely keeping his box from overturning, Bill hurried into the cellar and then up another set of stairs, into the chapel. They cooked in there, when the weather allowed and they could open the windows.  
    His cargo was dropped by the firepit as he grabbed pots and water. He was quick to get a fire going, to boil pots both for their drinks and for dinner. He set about examining MREs as the water went. He found several packs that were promising and let them boil as he grabbed trays, got glasses and set out snacks. The drinks came first; hot water poured into glasses, coffee and cocoa and sugar mixed in. The entrees, he opened by a window away from Frank; he had to make sure they were still edible. The bad ones were very quickly stuffed in a box to minimize the smell, but he ended up with enough edible food to fill both their trays- and just in time for Frank to climb up the stairs.  
    "Ah! Happy birthday, Frank!"   
    Frank pulled up short, and whistled, smiled.  
    "Quite a feast you pulled together. Thanks, Billy."

**Author's Note:**

> Fifth 600 word prompt: Feast.
> 
> Had a REAL hard time getting this one to 600 words- was almost about fifty words longer. I've been thinking about writing longer versions of these prompts(or at least some of them) and this one kind of convinced me to definitely do that; I had to cut more stuff than I liked.


End file.
